


All For A Photo

by whatabodtit



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Photography AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-04-16 18:23:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4635561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatabodtit/pseuds/whatabodtit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei is in the photography club and on the track team, but somehow got pulled into the swim club by a certain bubbly blonde.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nagisa's Stalker?!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm dedicating this chapter to Blazing_rain on Tumblr, because her birthday is on Monday and she's super great B)

Rei snapped the photo and looked out at the sky, painted with pinks and purples and soft blues and oranges. He'd come out to the beach to get some pictures of the sunset, but he'd ended up just photographing the water. As he turned around he saw three boys, one with dark hair was stripping his clothes off faster than he'd imagined possible, one with bright green eyes was trying to hold the stripper back, and one was just laughing at the whole situation. He had a hand on his stomach and his mouth was in a wide smile, tears collected in the corners of his closed eyes, the fading light bounced off his golden blonde hair almost magically. He was the textbook definition of beauty. Without thinking, Rei held the camera up and took a photo of the boy. Finally catching himself staring, Rei shook his head and walked off the beach towards the station. 

* * *

 

"Nagisa" Makoto said, turning his laptop towards the smaller boy, "look at this."

Nagisa took the lollipop out of his mouth to look up from his DS and at the screen. "Whoa! That's me! That's a really good picture! Did you take that?"

"No, I found it online, I don't know where it came from."

Haru looked up from his book at Makoto, "maybe he has a stalker."

"Haru! I don't think he has a stalker!"

"Ooh, that could be fun!"

"Nagisa! That would not be fun!"

Nagisa started pecking at the keyboard, "look, Mako-chan, it's from this instagram page, 'ReiFly', the caption says 'I saw this boy at the beach today, he was so beautiful'. Look, Mako-chan! I'm pretty!"

"How did you figure that out?"

nagisa looked up at Mako, "I clicked the 'source' button on the tumblr post then clicked the instagram link on the original post." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Makoto was less than tech-savvy and Nagisa spent 83.6% of his life online.

Haru looked up again, this time at Nagisa, "so, who's 'ReiFly'?"

Nagisa scrolled through the page, reading what he could find, looking at all the photos of landscapes and water, "he’s in the photography club at our school! Oh my god! This boy is in my class! His name's Ryuugazaki, I think."

"You should talk to him about this." Makoto's voice was soft, but Nagisa knew what he was really saying: "this stranger took a photo of you for no reason and posted it on the internet. Find out what's wrong with him."

"Okay!" Nagisa tended to be enthusiastic about life in general, but he was more than happy to talk to this boy, even if Mako wasn’t all for it.

* * *

 

"Ryuugazaki-kun!" Nagisa called at the end of class, touching him lightly on the back.

"Ye-" as soon as Rei saw who'd called him he froze, "H-Hazuki-kun?"

"Just call me Nagisa. I need to talk to you about something."

They walked out together and Nagisa pulled the photo up on his pink flip-phone, "did you post this?"

Rei's face went red enough to match his glasses, "I'm sorry!" Rei nearly yelled, then bowed to Nagisa almost aggressively, Nagisa swears he could feel a gust of wind.

"It's fine, really I don't even care, it's just that it bothered my friend and he wanted me to make sure you weren't a stalker or something.”

“I’m so sorry. I went down to the beach that day to take photos of the sky, but the sun just wasn’t working that day, so I ended up wasting an hour down there taking pictures of the water, but then I saw you and your friends and you were just so beautiful, I had to take your photo. I am so sorry for not asking you.”

Nagisa’s cheeks dusted soft pink, “it’s fine, really, no harm done. Hey, do you want to go get ice cream or something?”

“Ah, um,” Rei’s face flushed, was this beautiful boy asking him out on a date? “Sure,” he finished.

Nagisa’s face lit up, he jumped up a little bit, making his hair fan out around his face and fall back down in perfect placement.

The walk to the station was anything but quiet. Nagisa was babbling on like an eight year old about his day. At first Rei found it mildly annoying, but after a while he found himself hooked on every word. Rei knew what Nagisa had done that day, Rei was there. Rei sat right in front of him. But, for some reason, whatever words were coming out of Nagisa’s mouth were the most important thing to Rei.

At the ice cream parlor Nagisa had led him to, Nagisa ordered a giant ice cream cone with at least four different flavors on it. Rei ordered a single scoop of chocolate.

“So you’re that type.” Nagisa smiled at him. They walked back down the street side by side, arms nearly touching.

“What type?” Rei didn’t understand. Something about this boy just didn’t compute. He’s obviously the polar opposite of Rei, so why was he so taken with him?

“You know, the ‘chocolate is just the right mixture of boring and exciting’ type. Are you on the track team?”

Rei physically moved his upper body backwards, literally taken back by what Nagisa had said, “‘boring and exciting’?”

“Yeah. So, track team, you on it?”

“I-I am. How did you know that?”

“Because running is just the right mixture of boring and exciting.”

“Well, tell me, Hazuki-kun, how does one become as exciting as you?”

Nagisa pouted at Rei still calling him by his surname, “Join the swim team. But not like Haru-chan. Haru-chan’s swimming is boring because he doesn’t even have to try. It’s beautiful, but he doesn’t try.”

“I-well. I can’t join the swim team.”

“Awww, why not Rei-chan?”

Rei-chan? “Because I’m already on the track team.”

“Didn’t I just tell you how boring that is?”

“But half exciting.”

“A quarter exciting.”

“Still exciting.” Rei mumbled, licking his ice cream. Nagisa had practically inhaled his.

“But not exciting enough. All that makes it exciting is the pole vaulting. Everything else is just meh.”

“I’m not joining the swim team.”

“But please.”

“No.”

“Come to a practice?”

“Why?”

Nagisa ran ahead of him, “you can take pictures of me” Nagisa wiggles his hips and laughed when Rei went red again. He seemed to do that a lot.

“H-Hazuki-kun!”

“Call me ‘Nagisa’. So will you?”

“Fine.”

“Was it the hips?”

“What?”

“Is that what convinced you?”

“No!”

“Oookay, Rei-chan~”

* * *

“I talked to him!” Nagisa called when Haru opened the door. 

“Is he a stalker?” Haru asked him, almost looking curious.

“What did he say?” Makoto asked, coming around the corner.

“Sorry for intruding.” Nagisa said, taking his shoes off, “he said that I was just so pretty when he went down to the beach for pictures of the sunset, then we went on a date.”

“You went on a date with your stalker?” Haru’s near-curiosity quickly ebbed back down to his normal monotony.

“Please Haru-chan, don’t over excite yourself. No. I went on a date with a very nice boy who is going to be our fourth member at the joint practice with Samezuka.”

Haru’s face lit up slightly at the mention of actually being allowed to swim in a proper pool.

“But, there’s one little thing…” Nagisa smiled, “he said he won’t be swimming.”

Mako jumped up off the couch, “that’s great! I mean, the not swimming part might be a little difficult, but at least we can attend.”

“Yeah!” Nagisa jumped up with him, throwing his fist in the air.

* * *

“Why are we out here?” Haru said flatly.

“Nagisa, what’s going on?” Makoto trailed behind.

“Is this the track team?” Gou was last in line.

“You guys have to see him!” Nagisa pulled on Haru’s sleeve and pointed to the only boy on the track team with bright blue hair. He had compression shorts on under his running shorts, which Nagisa couldn’t help but take note of.

Rei stood at the end of the strip, holding the pole and muttering something. He charged and jabbed the stick down, pushing himself over it and the pole. Making it just over, he landed on his ass and stayed there for a moment before getting up.

“That was awesome Rei-chan!”

Rei turned and saw the boys, despite wanting to hide under a rock after that fall, he smiled at the blonde boy bouncing his way.

“You were so cool!” Nagisa grabbed his hands, and Rei immediately felt himself warm up, even though Nagisa’s hands were cold against his.

“Nagisa-kun, what are you doing here?”

Nagisa beamed at the use of his first name, “we wanted to see you run!” Gou nodded at Nagisa’s words, not taking her eyes off Rei.

“Ryuugazaki-kun, Nagisa says you’ll be coming to our practice at Samezuka tomorrow?”

“Ah, yes, uh-”

“Makoto”

“Makoto-senpai.” Rei finished, adding in an honorific even though Mako hadn’t told him to.

“Makoto.” Haru sad his name and Mako seemed to understand something that no one else could, then turned back to Rei.

“We have swim practice. It was nice to meet you, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Makoto smiled, and, when Rei said his goodbye, he and Haru walked off back towards the school.

“Bye-bye, Rei-chan!” Nagisa said cheerfully and ran off with the other boys, dragging Gou behind him.

* * *

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa was jumping up and down as he, Haru, and Makoto all walked towards Rei and the Samezuka pool. 

“Quiet down, Nagisa” Haru warned, earning a pout from one bubbly blonde.

Nagisa ran to Rei, jumping onto him with his arms wrapped around his neck. He had wanted Rei to spin him, but instead Rei just fell down.

“N-Nagisa-kun!”

Nagisa laughed and crawled off of Rei, only to plop down on his own knees in front of him.

“Are you ready to swim, Rei-chan?”

“I told you I won’t be swimming.” Rei stood up and brushed himself off.

“Are you ready to watch us swim, then?” Nagisa stood and looked up at Rei, eyes wide.

“I suppose.” Rei sighed.

Nagisa skipped ahead of the other boys and into the building. Haru picked up speed as they got closer to the pool, his eyes shining in a way Nagisa had only seen around water. Mako walked in pace with Haru, and Rei kept up the rear, trying to catch up with everyone else, but trying not to run indoors. When they got to the locker room, Haru was out of his clothes and in his suit before Rei could even set his bag down. Mako got his own suit on and folded Haru and Nagisa sloppily discarded clothes.

Rei locked his bag in the locker next to the one Nagisa had used and followed Mako out.

Rin clicked his tongue and left the pool area before Nagisa could greet him. Quickly after, Seijuurou came over and told the boys what they were going to do.

He looked over at Rei and cocked an eyebrow, “why aren’t you in a swimsuit?”

“Oh-I-uh-”

“He forgot it at home!” Nagisa jumped in front of Rei to cut him off.

“He can use one of our spares then,” Seijuurou turned to a small grey-haired boy off to the side, “Nitori, take this one to get a suit.”

“Y-yes sir!”

“T-that really-I’m fine-I don’t-!” Rei protested as best he could while the small boy, Nitori, pulled him to the locker room.

Ten minutes later, the boys were gathered by the poolside waiting to take their turns.

Makoto went first, diving in for freestyle. After him was Nagisa, then Rei.

He moved to the block and crouched down, all the numbers and possible outcomes running through his head at lightning speed. The whistle when off, and he jumped. He knew his form was perfect, beautiful. He hit the water, and sunk like a rock. There was an audible gasp from everyone in the room. No one knew what to do immediately. They stood and watched. Waiting for Rei to come back up. A few seconds passed, and he still wasn’t bubbling back to the top. Everything was still.


	2. Chapter 2

Nagisa ran to the side of the pool and dived in, quickly spotting Rei on the bottom and pulling him up to the surface. Rei coughed and sputtered, spitting out water and gasping for air.

Once out of the pool and sat down, the boys all crouched next to him, “so, Rei-chan, you can’t swim?” Nagisa started first.

“No! I’m on the track team!”

Makoto hummed from Rei’s left, “I’m sorry we forced you into this.”

“N-no, it’s okay, I’m just-”

“Look! It’s Haru-chan’s turn!”

Makoto and Rei turned to watch Haru on the block. He crouched down, toes just over the edge, hands poised to push himself in, the whistle sounded and he jumped, pushing himself off the block with his hands and feet at the same time, quickly but fluidly bringing his arms up above his head to lay one hand on top of the other, and breaking the surface of the water with little splash. He swam fast and beautifully, even from outside of the pool Rei could feel how at peace the water was with Haru.

“He’s beautiful” Rei whispered to himself.

“Yeah, he is.” Makoto smiled at the pool, his eyes trained on Haru.

“Does this make you wanna learn to swim, Rei-chan?”

* * *

Not a full week later, Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, Gou, and Rei were gathered around the Iwatobi High School pool. Nagisa hopped into the water feet first and motioned for Rei to join him, “I’ll teach you to swim Rei-chan!”

Rei slowly slid into the water with Nagisa, who quickly took Rei’s hands into his own. He led him out a little further, until the water was a little above Nagisa’s waist.

“What do you know how to do?” Nagisa asked sweetly, still holding Rei’s hands. Rei opened his mouth and closed it again, like he wasn’t entirely sure what to say. “That’s okay, Rei-chan! Can you float?”

“Of course I can float!”

“Okay, show me.” Nagisa let go of Rei’s hands as he curled himself into a ball face down in the water, blue hair floating up around his head.

When Rei can back up, Nagisa smiled and clapped his hands together, “good! You’re not a rock!”

Rei groaned and looked down at the water, wiping it from his eyes.

“Okay, give me your hands and lay down on your stomach,” Rei did as he was told, “kick your feet.” Rei kicked as Nagisa pulled him forward, “I’m going to let go now, okay?”

Rei had the cheesiest ear-to-ear smile stretching over his face, “go ahead! I’ve got it!” Nagisa let go, and Rei sank to the bottom. Seconds later he came sputtering to the top.

Makoto jumped in the water and swam over to them, “here, let me help. Let’s try backstroke, it’s easier to breathe that way.” Rei nodded, feeling safer under Makoto’s maternal gaze.

Makoto had Rei flip onto his back while he held him by his arms. “Keep your back straight and look back at me, tip your head as far back as possible.”

Rei followed Mako’s instructions as best he could. Makoto pulled him slowly back through the water.

“Are you ready to try on your own?”

“Yes! I won’t make a fool of myself again!” Makoto let go of Rei’s arms, and he and Nagisa watched Rei sink.

* * *

In the locker room, Rei tied his tie and smoothed it flat against his shirt while Nagisa untied and re-tied his twice. Rei sighed and took the ends of Nagisa’s tie to tie it himself. He tightened the knot up to Nagisa’s throat and patted it flat. 

“Thanks, Rei-chan!” Nagisa giggled at him

“No problem. HOw you dress yourself though, I’ll never know.”

“I usually just loosen it enough to pull over my head and leave it like that all the time, but it came undone today.”

Haru and Makoto pulled their bags over their shoulders, “we’re going to head out now, okay?”

“Bye-bye, Mako-chan! Bye-bye Haru-chan!”

“Goodbye, Haruka-senpai, Makoto-senpai.”

The older boys left, the door shutting softly behind them. Nagisa ran around the locker room collecting all the belongings he’d managed to strew from one end of the room to the other.

“Hey, Rei-chan, do you wanna go do something after this?” Nagisa asked as he threw a yo-yo and a bouncy ball in his bag.

“Like what? Why do you even have all this stuff?”

“I dunno, we could go to the park or something? And you never know when you’ll just need to--” Nagisa cut himself off by throwing a bouncy ball at Rei’s butt.

“N-Nagisa-kun!” Rei blushed and smacked at the air behind him, where the ball had been.

“So, park?”

“Sure.” Rei sighed.

Nagisa pumped his fists in the air and put the last toy in his bag, “let’s go!”

Nagisa grabbed Rei by the hand and practically dragged him to the train station. They sat together on the train, and when it got to their stop, Nagisa took Rei’s hand again.

* * *

Once at the park, they made their way to the swings, still hand in hand. They sat on swings next to each other, and Nagisa started kicking, pulling Rei’s swing with him. Both of them knew it’d be easier if they weren’t connected at the wrist, but neither of them was willing to let go. 

Nagisa talked about everything under the sun the entire time. He went on about ice cream and the cat by Haru’s house and a butterfly he’d seen that morning and everything else Rei shouldn’t have cared about, but he hung on Nagisa’s every word. Nagisa laughed at his own jokes and swung his and Rei’s hands between them as the swings started to still. The wind blew and pushed Nagisa’s bangs back the slightest bit and Rei was reminded of that day on the beach when he swore Nagisa was the most beautiful person alive.

* * *

Back on the train home, sunlight was dwindling. Nagisa rested his head on Rei’s shoulder and fell asleep. Rei sighed at Nagisa’s childishness, but leaned his own head on Nagisa’s.

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa called as he ran ahead, “c’mon! We’re gonna miss the train!”

Rei sped up and followed after, but no matter how fast he went, he couldn’t catch up.

“Rei-chan! Rei-chan, hurry!”

“Rei-chan!” the voice started to sound further away and more urgent. Rei woke with a start.

“Nagisa-kun!”

Nagisa stood over Rei with tears in his big pink eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Rei held his arms out to Nagisa, who quickly fell into them.

“We slept through our stops and this was the last train.” Tears started to drip down Nagisa’s cheeks.

“Nagisa-kun, shh, we’ll be okay, it’ll be fine, we’ll just call our parents and explain what happened.” Rei’s voice was smooth and soothing. Nagisa nodded and wiped his eyes, but still shook in Rei’s lap.

“We’ll get off at the next stop to call them.”

* * *

"Hey, mom,"

“No, I’m okay. I’m out with Nagisa-kun and--”

“Yes, that’s him. I’m with him and we fell asleep on the train, but they’ve stopped running now, so we aren’t really sure what to do.”

“No, he hasn’t called them yet.”

“Okay. I’ll let him know.”

“I love you too.” He hung up and slid his phone back in his pocket before turning to Nagisa.

“She says she’ll come get us. Do you need to use my phone?”

Nagisa shook his head, “no, but do you mind if I stay at your house tonight?”

“Not really, why?”

“I just. I don’t really wanna tell my parents I fell asleep and missed our stops like this. They’d think it was really irresponsible and I don’t want to bother them with it…” Nagisa trailed off and looked to the side.

Rei’s eyes softened and he took a step toward Nagisa, but stopped.

“Everyone makes mistakes, I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Yeah.” Nagisa looked at the ground, “yeah.” Nagisa got his phone out of his bag and started clicking through it.

“Hey mom,”

“Yeah, I’m really sorry for not calling earlier, we lost track of time.”

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“But, uh, because the last train already ran, can I just stay over here tonight?”

His whole face lit up, “thank you!”

“Mmhmm, I’ll call you in the morning!” Nagisa hung up and smiled at Rei, “she said yes!”

Rei looked mildly disapproving of Nagisa’s lie, but smiled at him anyways.

They waited at the station until Rei’s mother arrived in the car Rei’s father had to use for work. The boys got in the backseat together and apologized for making her come out to get them so late.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, just be more careful next time. But anyways, Nagisa-kun, I’ve heard a lot about you!” Ryuugazaki-san’s voice was smooth and sweet, she seemed carefree and loose, like you could tell her anything and know you’re still loved and unjudged, she seemed like a mother should.  Her hair was long and bright, the same blue as Rei’s. She had a thin face and looked almost too young to be a mother of two boys in their late teens.

“Really?! Rei-chan talks about me?!” Nagisa was being a little too loud for the enclosed space, but Ryuugazaki-san laughed.

“He does, all the time.”

“Mom!” Rei blushed as bright as his glasses and covered his face.

After an hour of riding in the car, listening to stories about Rei’s childhood and family, they crawled out of the car and went into the house.

The first person they were greeted by was Rei’s father. He was tall and thin, and he had metal-framed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. His hair was a dark purple, and his eyes a dark burgundy. He carried himself like a typical businessman, but still seemed soft and approachable.

“Nagisa-kun, nice to meet you!” His smile stretched ear to ear as he extended his hand for Nagisa to shake.

“Nice to meet you too, sir.” Nagisa shook his hand weakly, suddenly shy and nervous to be in Rei’s home.

“Nagisa-kun and I are going to go up to bed.” Rei cut in.

“Okay, goodnight, don’t stay awake too long, you’ve got school tomorrow.”

Rei and his parents said their goodnights while Nagisa stood awkwardly by the steps.

* * *

Nagisa and Rei sat on the edge of Rei's bed.

Nagisa shifted uncomfortably, "so, you're parents are cool."

"Uh, I guess so?"

"Yeah, I mean, they're so nice and understanding and like, they didn't get mad when you told them what happened and that's just really cool, okay?"

"Okay. Nagisa-kun, I think we should go to bed." Rei started to stand up, Nagisa following behind, "you can sleep in here with me if you want, but if not, we have a guest room across the hall."

Nagisa's eyes blew wide, "I-I think Ill just sleep in here."

Rei handed Nagisa a shirt and pair of pants from his drawer, "here, I'm sure you didn't bring any clothes to sleep in. There's a bathroom over there."

"Thank you." Nagisa went into the bathroom and put on the clothes that were two sizes too big. He has to roll the pants up  _four_ times, just to be able to see his feet!

When Nagisa came back out, Rei had pushed the blankets down on the bed so they could crawl in and go to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Rei woke up to a small bundle of blonde hair under his chin and thin arms and legs wrapped around him. H tried to wiggle out of bed without waking Nagisa, but his grip was near impossible to escape. Through all of Rei's pointless wiggling and moving around, Nagisa remained asleep. Rei gave up and flopped back down on the bed. Five more minutes. He wrapped his arms around Nagisa.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took like a million years to post, I make no promises about the next one, except that it'll happen eventually.

After that night, they spent a lot of time at Rei’s house. His parents were nice and no one bothered them while they studied.

They sat at the small table in Rei’s bedroom with books open to different pages for various classes. Nagisa was actually starting to get into the book he had to read for his literature class, but he was forgetting to take notes.

“Nagisa-kun, you’re not writing anything down.” Rei chided.

“Oops, sorry, this is really sad though! The main character’s friend just died! Rei-chan, he’s dead!”

Rei sighed and pushed Nagisa’s literature notebook towards him. Nagisa picked up his pen and, in pink gel ink, wrote out “he’s dead! this is not okay!!!”

Rei finished writing the last line of his homework and set his pen down, “Nagisa-kun?”

“Mhm?” Nagisa set his book on the table, face down. It bothered Rei that any pressure on the back of the book would break the binding, but he chose to ignore it.

“I have this project for the photography club.” Rei stopped.

Nagisa just looked at him.

“I need some help.”

“Do you want me to model for you!?” Nagisa was being a bit too loud, but Rei didn’t say anything about it.

“Yes, but it’s your choice because, well, the assignment is kind of inappropriate…” Rei blushed a soft pink and adjusted his glasses.

“Ooh, do you wanna take dirty pictures of me, Rei-chan?” Nagisa sat up on his hands and knees and leaned over the table.

“N-not exactly!”

Nagisa plopped back down on the floor with a thud, “what makes it inappropriate then?”

“I need to recreate an underwear advertisement.”

Nagisa stared at him.

“So… do you want to do it?” Rei adjusted his glasses again.

“Yes! I’d love to pose for you, Rei-chan!”

“O-okay. Do you mind doing it now? The assignment is due in a week, but i need time to edit and the lighting looks nice right now and-”

Before Rei had finished rambling, Nagisa was out of his pants.

“N-nagisa-kun!” Rei jumped up.

“This is what you wanted, right?”

“Y-yes, but, you have to warn me before you just get naked!”

“I’m not getting naked, I’m gonna keep my underwear on!”

Rei groaned and adjusted his glasses. He went over to his closet, got out his camera, and began adjusting the settings.

“Alrighty, Director Ryuugazaki, where do you want me?” Nagisa asked sweetly, completely unphased by his own nudity.

“Hang on.” Rei went back to his closet and got out two large, white sheets. He spread one across the floor and hung the other loosely from the wall, about a foot above Nagisa’s head. “Okay, stand there and try to look natural. I’ll move you if the pictures look weird.”

Nagisa pressed his back against the wall and grabbed fistfuls of the sheet. Rei took in the way his arms flexed as his fingers gripped at loose fabric, how his golden blonde hair splayed against the bright white sheet. Rei’s eyes traveled down from Nagisa’s hair to his half lidded eyes to his soft smirk, to his chest and stomach and the way they moved when he breathed, to muted pink briefs and his slightly parted thighs, barely bent knees. Rei completely forgot about the camera in his hands, mesmerised by Nagisa’s beauty.

“Rei-chan?”

Rei flushed bright red and adjusted his glasses, “s-sorry! Stay just like that.”

Rei held his camera to his face and tried to steady his shaking hands. He snapped several pictures of that pose, then set his camera down on the table behind him. “Th-that should be good, uh,” he coughed, “I-I got enough pictures.”

Nagisa let go of the sheet and took a step forward, “Rei-chan, are you okay?” He pressed the back of his hand to Rei’s cheek, “You’re burning up!”

“I-I’m fine!” Rei squeaked more than spoke.

“If you say so…” Nagisa said, but he didn’t remove his hand.

Rei leaned forward and could have sworn Nagisa did too, because within seconds, their lips were centimeters apart.

Rei could feel Nagisa’s breath dusting over his mouth. Rei pulled away and spun around. “I need to go to the bathroom!”

Rei sat on the edge of the tub with his head in his hands. He finally had a friend, someone he truly cares about, and he was about to ruin it with an unfortunate boner and kiss. As he tried to will away the tightness in his pants, all he could think about was those half lidded magenta eyes, blonde hair against white sheets, pink briefs that didn’t leave much to the imagination, anything else! Snap out of it!

When Rei came back into his room, Nagisa was fully clothed and reading.

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa looked up from his book, “Can I see?”

“W-what?”

“The pictures?”

“Oh, okay, yeah.” Rei picked his camera up off the table and took the SD card out, “come on,” he said, indicating towards two chairs by his desk. He opened his computer and slid the chip into it’s place. Rei clicked through folders until he found what he was looking for.

Nagisa stared at the picture in awe, “wow, Rei-chan, I’ve never looked so good naked.”

“I think-” you’ll always look good naked.

“You think what, Rei-chan?”

“I think these turned out really well.” Rei clicked through several pictures with slight differences that Nagisa didn’t catch, but Rei noticed immediately, changes in how tightly the sheet was held, in how closed his eyes were, the placement of his feet, whether Nagisa was inhaling or exhaling. Nagisa was amazed by all of them.

* * *

Later that night, Rei sat at his desk editing the photos. Nagisa laid with his head at the foot of the bed and his arm dangling over the edge. 

“Rei-chan?” He stroked his fingertips across the carpet.

“Yes?” Rei turned around in his chair.

Nagisa picked his head up off the bed, his eyes were wide and a little watery, “nothing. Nevermind.”

Rei closed out his (saved) work and climbed over Nagisa on the bed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you like me?” Nagisa turned and sat on his heels between Rei’s outstretched legs.

“Of course I like you.”

Nagisa groaned, “no, like, _like_ like me.”

Rei swallowed and was going to respond, but Nagisa kept going.

“I mean, I like you, I think I have for a while, and I thought you were going to kiss me earlier, but then then you ran off, so I dunno, maybe? So if you like me, I like you too, but if you don’t, just forget it and lets stay friends.”

Rei stared at Nagisa with eyes wide and lips slightly parted. “N-Nagisa-kun…”

Nagisa started to get up.

“No, wait.”

Nagisa sat back down and looked at Rei. For the first time ever, Nagisa felt like he was too close to someone else.

“I like you too.” Rei watched Nagisa’s chest rise as he took a breath, heard the air hitch in his throat.

“Rei-chan?”

Rei looked at Nagisa with that look, soft eyes full of love and care, like Nagisa was all he cared about.

“Can I kiss you?”

Nagisa nodded. They both slowly inched toward each other. When they’re faces were almost touching, Nagisa moved forward that last little bit and pressed their lips together. They moved back almost immediately.

Rei moved forward again, a little more quickly than before, and kissed Nagisa again. He slowly tried to move his lips, and soon Nagisa was moving his too.

Neither of them had any idea what to do with their hands, Nagisa kept his clasped in his lap and Rei kept his awkwardly at his sides. When they parted, they were both a little out of breath.

Nagisa scooted forward, “I’m gonna try something…” he said softly. He put his arms on either side of Rei’s face and moved forward again. He was completely going off what he’d seen in movies and TV.

Rei put his hands on Nagisa’s waist and pulled him closer while they kissed. Rei poked his tongue out a little bit, not entirely sure what to do with it, and Nagisa squealed and moved back. Rei immediately took his hands off Nagisa’s waist.

“I’m sorry!” Rei said, his eyes were wide with terror.

“No! No, it’s fine Rei-chan! I just wasn’t expecting it…”

“O-okay…”

“So, try again?”

Rei nodded. Nagisa uncrossed his legs and stretched them over Rei’s before putting his hands back on his face. As they came together again, Nagisa licked at Rei’s lips. They came together awkward and sloppy and wet and Rei pulled back after just a few seconds.

“M-maybe we should try that one another time…” Rei wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Nagisa nodded in agreement. “I-it’s getting late though, so we should probably turn in for the night.”

They shuffled around on the bed, getting back on their respective sides. Once the light was turned out and they were settled into bed, Nagisa tilted his head up and pecked Rei on the chin.

“Rei-chan?”

“Hm?”

“Are we, like, boyfriends now?”

“If you want to be.”

“Okay.”

There was a pause.

“So, Nagisa-kun,”

“Yeah?”

“Are we boyfriends?”

“Yeah.”

* * *

The next morning, Nagisa hung all over Rei a little more than usual. When he woke up, he kissed Rei to wake him, then when Nagisa finished washing his face, he pecked Rei on the cheek while Rei brushed his teeth. But, he separated himself from Rei completely, when they went down for breakfast. As soon as Rei’s parents left for work, Nagisa slid over to him and kissed him.

On weekends, Rei wasn’t really awake until after breakfast, but when he finally woke up he returned all of Nagisa’s kisses and hugs and anything else the bubbly blonde tried to do.

Around noon, they laid on the couch together, watching reality TV. Nagisa reached back from his place on Rei’s lap to take his glasses.

“Nagisa-kun, I need those.”

“Not now.” Nagisa folded Rei’s glasses and set them on the table before rolling over to face Rei. Nagisa moved forward and pecked him on the lips. The kiss quickly became something that Rei worried they shouldn’t be doing on the couch, but when Nagisa moved away, Rei followed him as far as he could. Nagisa turned back around and handed Rei’s glasses back to him before going right back to the TV show he’d been watching before.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter took a few months to write. I've been working on it off and on since February, and it just wasn't going anywhere, but now I've got a solid plan and I hope to follow through with it. This is my first proper multi-chapter fic in a while, so updates are probably going to be kind of slow, but bear with me friends!


End file.
